The invention relates generally to celestial navigation for missile systems. In particular, the invention relates to characterizing celestial spectral information in conjunction with stellar catalogs and appropriate adjustments based on narrow-band spectral emission (NBSE).
Weapon systems that navigate by the stars are designed to view and examine stars that are suitable to the system's charge-coupled device (CCD) capabilities. The manufacturer's design defines the CCD's response to light, which can be expressed as a function of wavelength. The CCD response is integrated with each particular star's photometric spectrum. This integrated flux can be used to determine whether or not the star is useable for navigation by the weapon system. The main source for narrow-band photometry spectra is the Mitchell-Johnson (MJ) star catalog.